Tone Destruction, My favorite ways to make a mess... Options

[Scott Gentzen]

One of the things that attracts me to the guitar is how some players have complely obliterated their tone. Stuff like what Ministry does with guitar sounds. Nirvana's running a SansAmp into a DS1 into a cranked distorting amp. That video of Adrian Belew laying some noise down for NIN's Ghosts project that I posted a little while back. I love that stuff. I don't want sweet warm tones, I want to sound like I'm breaking my gear into little pieces.

The thread about the ElectroHarmonix POG box got me thinking about a list of my favorite pedals. Here's that list....it'll probably be another one of my threads where people think I'm just sick and wrong, but that's ok. It's good therapy.

The Interfax Harmonic Percolator. Interesting box. Only passes even-order harmonics so even when the distortion's cranked, there's still some of the original signal in there. Originals are almost impossible to find but there's a guy named Chuck Collins at Theremaniacs that makes an almost perfect clone. I have one. I love it, and I'll get some sound samples up some day. Here's a video of Steve Albini comparing an original one vs Barge Concepts' copy.
http://www.gearwire.com/bp1-albini-comparison.html

I came across Devi Ever's designs noticing them in some of the photos and videos related to NIN's Ghosts project. He has a bunch of interesting designs. The main theme seems to be putting two effects in one box and having control of how they're blended together. I watch this Dream Mangler video a lot...I love the guitar playing here, but the sounds that this pedal makes are fantastic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOYly0C7OSc


Metasonix creates a special kind of sonic hell for guitar players as well as keyboard/synth players. They make stompboxes that use a lot of odd tubes. Lots of ridiculous distortion available in packages called Butt Probe and Scrotum Smasher and the Wretch Machine which is a tube synth. This year, they 're making their first guitar amp...the...uh..G-1000...a pair of 15-watt amps in a single head enclosure with 23 weird tubes. It's a beautifully disgusting machine but at $5k, I'll never have one.
Scrotum Smasher with sound samples - here
Butt Probe with sound samples - here
The...uh...G-1000 with a video sample (foul language warning) - here

That's all for now. I might add to this in the future if I think of it.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!